The Student ICT forum was held on Thursday 28 November, and was attended by 8 key members of ICT staff as well as 8 student representatives.
One of the main issues discussed was Panopto (lecture recordings) rollout, so I thought I'd give an update on how it's all going.
61 teaching spaces are ready to record. Of these, 45 have audio and video recordings, while the other 16 have audio recordings and will have video cameras installed in due course. This isn't a problem as the videos don't actually capture much- except for the lecturer wandering around the front of the room! Audio recordings have the lecturers voice and the slide deck, so that's really all you need. In terms of whitebaords and blackboards- this is an ongoing problem as the lighting in many lecture theatres doesn't allow good-quality video capture of material that is written on boards. Clore LT has had all its' AV equipment updated and video capture works great in there- this is the model lecture theatre, and ICT hope that every LT will look like this over the next 5 years.
Current total number of views on Panopto: 21,774!
One of the problems that is slowing down the use of Panopto is not the installation of hardware, but the fact that staff aren't using it! This could be due to staff not wanting to record their lectures, not knowing about Panopto or not knowing how to use it! To combat this, departments are each looking for a Panopto "champion"- someone who will assist colleagues and inspire them to recored their lectures. Certain departments have decided to train student reps or student volunteers how to set up Panopto, so that if a lecturer doesn't know how to use it they can help them set it up. This seems to be going well, so I'll be chatting with all my reps to encourage them to do the same!
The remainder of the lecture theatres that Panopto has been requested in will be installed in Summer 2014. A list of all the rooms in College that have Panopto installed can be found here: http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/ict/services/e-learning/staff/panopto/access/panopto_lecture_theatres
For now- ICT need YOU to lobby your departments to get them using Panopto where it's installed. A member of staff from Faculty of Natural Sciences said: "Until there is unsurmountable student pressure for these recordings, we will still get members of staff who won't record their lectures". So keep up the noise and keep asking for those recordings!
DPE love,
Nat x
